Various cars of this type have been proposed in the prior art. The idea behind the third front seat is to enable two non-drivers to be accommodated in the front part of the passenger compartment, when the car is occupied by only three people, so as to afford them the maximum comfort, the maximum available space, and the maximum visibility. Not least is the need to facilitate communication between the third passenger and the other two, which is somewhat hampered in conventional vehicles where the third passenger sits on the rear seat.
In spite of the advantages indicated above, cars with three front seats produced up to now have never been very successful commercially. The Applicant considers that one of the main reasons for this lack of success is the fact that the passenger sitting on the central front seat does not have lateral supports available for use when travelling, and therefore feels particularly uncomfortable on bends and at sustained speeds.
In order to resolve the aforesaid problem, the Applicant has already proposed, in his Utility Model application Ser. No. 53840-B/87 of 26th Nov. 1987, a car with three front seats side by side, in which the central front seat is set slightly further back than the other two front seats. The person occupying the central front seat is thus restrained laterally when travelling by the two adjacent sides of the two lateral front seats. At the same time, all the above-mentioned advantages resulting from the use of three front seats side by side are achieved.
Since filing his previous application Ser. No. 53840-B/87, however, the Applicant has become aware that cars with three front seats side by side, in which the central front seat is set slightly further back than the other two front seats, had already been proposed in the art. Cars of this type are described and illustrated, for example, in British Patents Nos. 14074 and 24599, in German Patent No. 284 250, and in French Patents Nos. 1,053,218 and 1,059,830. However, these prior solutions relate to motor cars without rear seats, or to cars in which the accommodation of the passengers occupying the rear seats is unsatisfactory. The use of a front seat which is set back in fact decreases the space available for the rear passengers in a passenger compartment of given dimensions. This prevents the use of a single bench seat in the rear, for example, since the person occupying the central part of the bench has very little space available for his legs because of the fact that the central front seat is set back. In some of the prior documents cited above (including the Applicant's Utility Model Application) this problem is solved by the provision of a row of three seats side by side in the rear, also with the central seat set slightly further back. However, this solution is not completely satisfactory since it involves an increase in the overall length of the car and/or a decrease in the space available in the rear load compartment.